Monday, May 25, 2015

And the DingleBat award goes to....

What can cause more anxiety than a first lesson with a new trainer? Being late to that lesson- as I was when I ended up stuck in Memorial Weekend traffic.

It was my first overall ride at the new place so in addition to being late I also didn't have my routine down. I just ended up tacking her up in her stall to keep things simple and repeated my mantra, be brave, as we walked down the hill and into the ring.

Ellie, to her credit (her only credit), was decidedly chill despite the wind and cloudy skies so we managed to avoid any "arabian" moments which typically result in a small horse head in your face while the rest of her dashes off someplace.

No. Not today. Ellie had a new trick up her sleeve for me.

She decided that after every fourth trot step she would then pretend to pick up the left lead canter- which literally felt like she would canter a step off her left front...but then didn't actually canter.

This fake out led to a number of ramifications. Panic- is she lame? Why does she keep doing this? She must be off.

Indecision- how do I make this stop. Pull more? Kick more? "You want to canter- fine we'll canter. Oh really- you actually don't feel like cantering? Then STOP pretending like you want to canter."

And probably most embarrassing- wrong diagonals. Because every time she took her funny step I would pause a beat before carrying on and then Diane would say "diagonal" and I would say (to myself) "you've got to be kidding me." Because throughout this whole situation I've also been thinking "perfect equitation for new trainer."

Where is the lovely collection? The using of the hind end that we've been working so hard on?

Oh Ellie. She is not lame. She does not want to canter. She is trying to get out of actually using her bootie and seems to think this is her ticket to a quick ride. Not so friend- despite trantering along three lessons in a row she finally settled down in my hack today. When there was no one around to see it of course!